“At its heart, the journey of each life is a pilgrimage through unforeseen sacred places that enlarge and enrich the soul.”
~ John O’Donohue
In the heart of winter and close to the shortest day at the Solstice, Wild Church set off on its third tree pilgrimage guided by Cami Rose and Rev Sam. I (Sam) began my morning pilgrimage by joining the small, friendly congregation at Staverton Church for their communion and deeply appreciated their warm welcome for those of us who would be celebrating a rather wilder communion later under the yew trees. Our rather larger Wild Church group started to gather after the traditional service in their lovely Lady Chapel and then spent some time quietly meeting the ancient yews in the churchyard. The oldest grandmother yew at Staverton has a split trunk, which made a wonderful threshold for the beginning of our silent walk. As each person stepped through this physical and symbolic gateway at this turning point of the natural year, they were given a yew seed as they approached the tree and a beeswax candle as they stepped out the other side, with an invitation to infuse seasonal intentions & blessings into the candle and light it on the Winter Solstice or at Christmas.
We had a fair way to journey, along the river, across the old, stone Staverton bridge and through the woods to reach our destination underneath the spreading branches of an even more ancient grandmother yew in the old churchyard at the heart of the Dartington Estate. Cami led us at a good pace along stoney & leafy tracks and through a fair bit of lovely mud, while I attempted to shepherd some of our wilder members from the back! This was an especially delightful role this month, as a sister mystic and I wandered off the path for a while. Later I paused to share emergency rations with others and watched in awe as another of the rear guard leapt off a great beech tree to go skinny dipping in the river.
Unlike our last pilgrimage, even with all these excitements along the way, we did all end up together underneath the Dartington yew. Here we silently shared a yew communion, with a mead that had been lovingly crafted by Cami from the berries of this Dartington Yew. (Please note, all other parts of yew trees are deadly poisonous, so this is not something to try at home! Only the red flesh of the berries is safe to eat and as it contains the poisonous seed, great care needs to be taken in separating the two.)
As Cami herself wrote in our invitation, ” the silent pilgrimage is in deep reverence and appreciation for the beauty of this blessed land – taking in the landscape and the magic of the Winter season and we complete our journey with heartful sharings and a wild blessing for all Yews.” Our morning did indeed conclude with heart felt sharing and all manner of embodied wisdom gleaned from each person’s own experience of coming into deeper relationship with this land and these particular yews. Feelings of awe were expressed at being in the presence of a being who had witnessed perhaps two thousand years of living. I think we all returned home with a renewed sense of gratitude for the natural world that we are but a small and young part of and which we each have a responsibility to care for.
